By Plasteurope.com staff

Swiss polyamide specialist Ems (Domat; www.ems-group.com) was able to increase its turnover in the first half of 2024 thanks to a sales campaign, despite the sluggish economy in its main sales markets of Europe and China. However, sales fell by 8.1% to CHF 1.09 bn (EUR 1.12 bn) compared to the same period previous year, partly due to unfavourable currency effects. New business had a positive impact again on EBIT, which increased by 3.9% to CHF 291 mn. Around 90% of revenue was generated by the main business segment, High Performance Polymers, with the remaining 10% coming from the smaller Speciality Chemicals segment.

Ems expects the economic environment to remain challenging for the rest of the year. The company said there were no signs of growth stimuli in the manufacturing industry worldwide. This is also reflected in the forecasts for business development – for 2024, Ems expects sales to be slightly below the previous year’s level due to negative currency effects, while EBIT is expected to increase slightly.

There is, however, something positive to report – in the first quarter, the company put into operation another large-scale plant at its headquarters in Domat, which had been announced three years ago. Its new production process consumes only half as much energy as the previous system.

— Translated by Christopher Köbel